Book Review: Discontent by Beatriz Serrano
Millennial career woman, Marisa, reconciles with the drudgery and dissatisfaction of work in this dark comedy about what on Earth we are even doing with our lives.
In my multi-year quest to read a book from every country in the world, I accidentally crossed off "Spain" too early, panicked, then immediately requested this book so as to not forget my mistake. It took a while for the audiobook to make its way to me in the queue, but I am so happy that it finally did, and I have officially crossed the country off my list.
This book follows Marisa, a social media or marketing or some kind of creative worker who has accidentally found herself promoted to a position of some importance at work. She hates her job, hates those she works with, and frequently pawns off her work in favor of watching YouTube and reading listicles. What follows is a darkly humorous look at the forces of the modern day that keep us millennials in these loops of dissatisfaction- with our jobs, our homelife, and ourselves in general. After all, what is a girl to do in a society that prizes wasting our lives doing jobs we don't care about for people who don't care about us?
The best way I can describe this book is as a dramedy. It is darkly humorous in the way that the TV show, The Bear, is funny. It is at times absurdist, but that lends itself more towards an Office Space for the next generation rather than being too much. The millennial references are too real- both good and bad, but mostly bad. And that's okay. In the end, the book was sarcastically, wittily, hilariously hopeful. Just dance it out, and you'll be fine.
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